Archive for the ‘Tasting Australia’ Category

The sea lions are at Seal Bay Conservation Park on Kangaroo Island (the island is Australia’s third-largest island and a short 45-minute flight from Adelaide).
The sea lions spend up to three days at sea hunting for food, then they enjoy a rest period lolling around the sand dunes soaking up the sun or surfing the waves. In winter they wander up to the scrub and take refuge under the bushes.

The sea lions are protected by law and you will be advised by a National Parks Ranger whether you can watch them from a boardwalk over the dunes, or whether you can go down on to the beach. They look cute and cuddly – but the males can be very aggressive and it’s best to watch them from a distance.

Yesterday, still in the Barossa Valley (South Australia), we called in to the Apex Bakery in Elizabeth Street, Tanunda, because we’d heard heaps about the Fechner brothers and their bread made the good old-fashioned way with unbleached flour, no sugars and no emulsifiers. The wood fired oven was built in 1924 and is Australia’s longest continually fired oven. It’s never gone out!

Brian (Nipper) Fechner proudly standing in front of his wood fired oven at the Apex Bakery

Here you’ll find locally made breads, cheeses, sauces, pickles and condiments and locally grown olives, fruits and vegetables. The range of apple varieties was impressive and the little garlic seeds, from matured garlic flowers (just let the plants go to flower then seed) were a revelation. Hot and spicy and very more-ish!

Sour dough bread

And, one last pic – me at dinner with Paul Mercurio, star of stage and screen, including the movie Strictly Ballroom and television series Dancing with the Stars, at dinner at Yalumba Winery, Australia’s oldest family-owned winery in Eden Valley (close to Barossa Valley), South Australia. A few days more in Adelaide, then off to Kangaroo Island!

They let me loose amongst the barrels at Seppelts Winery in the Barossa Valley. Look at the barrels! We tried a 100 year-old port which is to be released tomorrow for around $1000 Australian a bottle! My favourite was the 25 year-old DP90 Rare Tawny – nutty and dry, like spicy walnuts and coffee, toffee and leather. Gorgeous!

Also, we cooked lunch with South Australia’s legend Maggie Beer. What an experience. Lobster, olives baked in reduced red wine, her famous roast chickens, baked pumpkin with verjuice, and to finish a stunning quince pastry tart with vanilla and elderflower ice cream. The sun shone. The day was brilliant. The Barossa is amazing!